At 1700hrs on 14 March, 1942, U-133 left her base at Salamis, Greece. Only 2 hours later she hit a mine. The U-boat was lost immediately with all hands. The commander of the 23rd Flotilla stated after the incident that U-133 left the prescribed way.

(Special thanks to Telis Zervoudis for great assistance in clearing this long time uncertain fate.)

General notes on this boat

Myth involving this boat
There is a great U-boat myth that involves this boat. According to an article from 1996 her last mission was to travel up the Colorado River from Baja California and destroy the Hoover Dam. The article is from the USS Shaw's newsletter. The article states that U-133, piloted by Captain Peter Pfau along with 54 sailors made it to as far as Laughlin, Nevada before sandbars made them abort their mission and scuttle the sub.

This is only a cute story, she never would have made it that far (see map showing its approximate path from St. Nazaire, a suitable base, to the target) as its fuel supply would never have allowed this (not even close, the type VIIC could make it to the US east coast by filling up part of its water tanks with fuel but even then it was stretching it). There was also no U-boat commander named Pfau. Had such an unsual and daring raid been attempted during the war, people would talk and we would know about it by now.

Men lost from U-boats

Unlike many other U-boats, which during their service lost men due to accidents and various other causes, U-133 did not suffer any casualties (we know of) until the time of her loss.

U-boat Emblems

We have 1 emblem entry for this boat. See the emblem page for this boat or view emblems individually below.